The South African quest for prime knockout-phase seedings in this season's United Rugby Championship is being severely limited by a man from Lichtenburg.
Franco Smith may have been born in the North West Province but, many thousands of kilometres north-west of his home country, he is currently making waves damaging to SA’s dreams in the 2023/24 tournament: in chillier Scotland.
The nine-cap Springbok utility back - all achieved under the tenure of Nick Mallett, a longtime admirer of Smith’s rugby brain - is driving a startling charge by Glasgow Warriors (now pretty solidly embedded in second spot overall) in his second season at Scotstoun.